Market anarchists follow a tradition of libertarian socialism inaugurated by radicals like Josiah Warren and Benjamin Tucker, for whom capitalism was something very different from a legitimate free market. Examining the economic system of their day, they concluded that it was one fundamentally defined by monopoly. While it was passing itself off as laissez faire and paying lip service to open competition, it was actually a system that privileged the owners of capital, outlawing the most important forms of competition.

So-called “intellectual property” is one such monopoly, an anticompetitive privilege masquerading as a legitimate individual right. This month, China established a court devoted solely to intellectual property issues, ostensibly signalling its commitment to global corporate capitalism. But again, corporate capitalism is no free market, and “intellectual property” is no legitimate property right.